


Romance in the Vents

by Cheshire_Hearts



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Dessert & Sweets, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Ravage is Gender Fluid, Some angst, The vents are Ravage's property
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:34:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25172479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheshire_Hearts/pseuds/Cheshire_Hearts
Summary: Skids and Ravage keeping bumping into each other in the vents. Skids is amused by it all, Ravage is annoyed. He might not have been there first, but the vents are his place to find peace and quiet while keeping an optic on everyone to make sure no one is plotting anything. And Skids is disrupting that. Isn’t he?Or, the three times Ravage bumps into Skids in the vents and the one-time they end up at the oil reservoir in a pillow and blanket fort— aka, they have a date in the vents and Ravage might be in love.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Ravage/Skids
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Romance in the Vents

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Iron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iron/gifts).



> @fab_roddy on Tumblr gave me the idea of Skids/Ravage and this happened. This fic is for her and there will be more following this one at some point in the future.

Ravage paused and peaked through the grill into the medibay. The room was dimmed and quiet at the moment and Ravage moved on, slipping through the vents into another part of the ship. Again it was quiet, as it should be at that point in the night cycle. Ravage enjoyed the calm and quiet. He’d never been on a ship that was so loud and ran into so much trouble all the time. That included all the times he’d been stuck with Rumble and Frenzy too. 

The beastformer turned a corner and started back toward Megatron’s habsuite, making sure to go the long way so he could enjoy some more quiet time in the vents. He slipped through an intersection, turned left, and came face to face with Skids.

Hackles raised, Ravage swiped at the other mech, narrowly missing his face as Skids jerked back. His helm smacking into the vent’s ceiling and he let out a loud yelp. Ravage hissed and glared at the startled theoretician. 

“Ravage? What are you doing up here?”

“What am  _ I  _ doing up here? What are  _ you  _ doing up here?” Ravaged snarled back, slowly taking a step away from Skids.

“I always come up here. I use the vents to get around and avoid mechs. What about you?”

Ravage rolled his optics, of course that was his reasoning. “It’s none of your business.”

Ravage twisted around in the vent and slipped away quickly, leaving behind a confused Skids. Now he’d have to be careful to avoid the one mech who was dumb enough to invade Ravage’s vents.

***

The hallways were packed and noisy and while staying close to Megatron’s pedes usually kept Ravage out of harm's way and offered her space from clueless mechs, it wasn’t always ideal. Instead, she was keeping a close optic on Megatron and the rowdy mechs from the safety of the Lost Light’s vents. The distance also made them quieter than being on the floor and having her sensors bombarded with too much noise. 

Ravage slunk through the ducts, following Megatron closely as he greeted and smiled at the partying mechs in the hallways. Ravage couldn’t understand how Megatron could handle all the attention he got, both good and bad. The beastformer snorted when Megatron congratulated a mech for something they did in the last fight. It was ridiculous and a little stupid, but at least Megatron seemed to be enjoying himself.

The large mech barely made it a few more feet before Ultra Magnus turned the corner. The two large mechs started talking and Ravage noted how much Megatron’s smile had grown after just a few exchanges. The tip of her tail twitched. Her ears flicked toward them, but she wasn’t close enough to hear what they were discussing. Her tail thumped the duct and nearly made Ravage leap out of her plating. No one in the hallways appeared to have noticed the noise, but that did nothing to soothe Ravage’s annoyance.

“Wow, that was loud,” a voice whispered from behind her.

Ravage did leap at that and spun around, hackles raised and claws ready to strike. Skids was ready this time too, and had already reeled back. “Stop doing that!” Ravage snarled, swatting at the annoying mech.

Skids just grinned and let the cat smack one of his raised arms. He noticed Ravage had retracted her claws. “Stop doing what? Sneaking up on you or using “your” vents?”

Ravage snarled and Skids laughed at her.

“Both,” she snapped and looked back through the grate and found both Megatron and Magnus were gone. She groaned, threw one last glare at Skids, and then slunk away through the vents. This time she kept an optic out for any annoying followers.

***

The hallways were blissfully empty at this time in the recharge cycle. Usually Ravage would be asleep right now too, but Megatron had never returned to their habsuite and Ravage didn’t know where he was. Megatron’s last shift had been in the morning and Ravage had seen him earlier when they’d fueled together. She hadn’t seen him since though and it wasn’t like the ex-warlord to be late like this. 

Ravage’s tail twitched as she stalked through the shadows in the hallway. Megatron had also been ignoring all of her comm calls for the past two hours. 

Light spilled into the hallway from an open doorway, laughter echoing into the hall as Tailgate fell out. He was giggling like mad and hopped back to his pedes. Ravage quickly scaled the wall and slipped into a vent before the giggling minibot noticed her. Not that Ravage thought he would. Tailgate was already charging back into the room with a mock war shout and Ravage couldn’t help but to check what was going on. She was curious, not nosy.

She peeked through one of the grates and blinked. Tailgate hurled himself at Whirl who was cackling and clicking his claws together. Tailgate slammed into the helicopter and Whirl toppled over with dramatic flare.

“You got me!” He cried and pretended to be dead. 

Tailgate giggled. “That’s right, you better not mess with us minibots! We’ll get you!”

Ravage quickly looked around the room, which she realized was Whirl’s habsuite, and noticed Rewind and Swerve giggling off to one side and Cyclonus grinning from one of the mounds of pillows and meshes. There were cubes of Energon and piles of goodies strewn about the floor too. Ravage didn’t see Chromedome or a vidscreen set up anywhere in the room, so she assumed this was just a little get-together between Tailgate and his closest friends.

The cat shook her helm and continued on through the vents, searching for wherever Megatron had disappeared to. She hadn’t gotten too far before she found Skids’ hunched form over a grate. Ravage stilled, optics locking onto the unsuspecting mech. She activated more of her stealth mods and slunk forward. Skids was clearly distracted by what he was watching and Ravage was able to get right next to him without being caught. 

“What are you looking at,” Ravage whispered in his audial.

Skids lurched with a shout, shoulders colliding with the vent’s ceiling. He turned wide optics to a smug-looking Ravage.

“What the slag was that?” Ravage heard Rodimus yelp.

“I don’t know, it came from the vents, I think.” And that was Thunderclash.

Ravage’s optics widened as she stared at Skids, her jaw hanging open. Skids’ faceplates started to heat up in a blush.

“Were they-- were you  _ watching  _ them?” Ravage hissed.

Skids’ optics widened even more somehow. “What? No! Ew, gross. They were discussing the map.”

“Then why are you blushing?” 

“I am not!” Skids sounded indigent and Ravage was ready with a retort almost out of her mouth when Rodimus’ voice drifted up to them from right below the vent.

“Hey, who’s up there? Is that you Skids? It better be, I’d rather it be you than Ravage.”

“Rodimus, that’s rude.”

“What, it’s true. Ravage creeps me out.”

Ravage rolled her optics, took a playful swipe at Skids, and then started off down the vents to continue her hunt for Megatron. She missed the way Skids watched her leave and missed Rodimus sticking his helm up through the open grate to glare at Skids for spying on them.

***

“That’s none of your concern, Ravage!” Megatron snapped.

Ravage jerked back, glaring up at the massive mech. “Oh really? And how isn’t it any of my concern?”

“Because it’s not! You don’t have any say in anything I do, and neither does Soundwave.”

“You think this is because of Soundwave?” Ravage snarled, or at least tried to. It hurt, thinking Megatron didn’t trust him, hadn’t trusted him with this. And the only reason why he hadn’t? Because he thought Ravage would rat him out to Soundwave immediately.

“Isn’t it? He sent you here to keep an optic on me. To bring me back or find proof I’d been coerced or forced in some way to make this decision.”

“That may be true, but he didn’t tell me to stay with you after I found out you really wanted this, he doesn’t have any say in what I do with my free time or who I choose to be around, and he definitely didn’t tell me to be friends with you!” Ravage screamed.

Megatron reeled back as if slapped, staring with wide optics at Ravage. Ravage froze, realizing what he’d just done, what he’d just yelled at Megatron. His vents roared in his audials, his spark twisted in his chest, and heat quickly raced through his frame. A flush settled over his cheeks.

“Ravage I--”

“Forget it!” Ravage spat and fled up the wall into the nearest vent. He heard Megatron call after him, but he ignored the other mech.

He ran blindly through the maze of vents, not caring how much noise he made. His vents were working too hard, making too much noise to his sensitive audials. He didn’t care. He kept running blindly through the vents until he ended up at one of the grates overlooking the oil reservoir. He let himself collapse in a pile of limbs above it.

How could he be so stupid? He knew yelling at Megatron got you nowhere; Rodimus had taught them all that on the first day of being on board the ship. Not to mention the fact that Megatron doesn’t  _ do  _ feelings _. _ Ravage didn’t do feelings either, but he’d been so upset. No, he’d been more than upset. He’d been furious. He still was furious. Furious at Megatron for lying and sneaking around behind his back; furious that he’d had to overhear it from Swerve of all mecha; furious that Megatron hadn’t felt comfortable sharing his relationship with Ultra Magnus with him; furious at Soundwave for being the reason Megatron didn’t trust him with this; but mostly, he was furious with himself for not noticing there was something going on with Megatron for months now.

It was a mess, and Ravage had made it worse. The yelling and arguing hadn’t helped, but they could’ve fixed it. Until he went and ran away. Like a coward.

Ravage groaned and pulled his front legs closer to himself, covering his optics with his paws. He was glad the oil reservoir was silent and no one was around to witness his death via mortification and shame. What would Soundwave think when he heard about this? Ravage knew his host would give him The Look, which somehow worked even with the visor and blast mask. Ravage wilted just thinking about it. Another set of fans coming from in front of him drew Ravage’s attention back to the outside world, but only a little bit.

“Wow, what happened to you?” Skids asked quietly.

Ravage didn’t bother moving, didn’t bother to move a paw out of the way to look at the other mech. “Go away, I’m trying to die of shame right now.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Skids said. Ravage heard him shift and settle.

The other mech was close enough Ravage could feel the heat of his frame rolling off of him. It was actually nice. Ravage had never noticed how cold the vents above the oil reserve were.

“It’s horrible and I’ll never get over it.” Ravage mumbled.

He heard Skids snort. “Keep talking like that and I’ll think someone replaced you with Rodimus.”

That got Ravage’s attention. His helm snapped up and he glared at the blue mech sitting right in front of him. “I am nothing like that mechling!”

“There’s the Ravage I know!” Skids smiled at him, but something was off about it. Ravage couldn’t tell what it was though, but there was a sadness to his optics that the beastformer had never seen before.

“I never left. It’s just,” Ravage sighed and dropped his helm to his paws. “I think I really messed up and I don’t know how to fix it. And I know he won’t just let it go either.”

Skids tilted his helm. “I’m here if you want to talk about it, but you don’t have to.”

“It’s fine, I’ll figure it out eventually. I might just have to avoid Megatron for awhile.” Ravage mumbled.

“Woah, that bad, huh? And with Megs? I didn’t think you two argued.”

Ravage just snorted and let his optics slide closed. They lapsed into silence for a while and Ravage listened to the quiet hum of both of their systems. It really wasn’t shocking that Skids was able to sneak up on him all the time, the mech was certainly silent for someone of his size and he was familiar with the Lost Light’s duct system. 

“So,” Ravage hedge, cracking one optic open to look at Skids. “What are you doing here at this time of the night shift?”

Skids looked away, fidgeting with his servos. “I always come here after I have an appointment with Rung. Usually, I walk here, but I didn’t want to see anyone in the hallways, so I came by vent.”

“Want to talk about it?” Ravage asked after a beat of silence.

A smile spread across Skids’ faceplates. “Not really, but thanks for asking. I don’t think talking about it any more will really help. I just wish getting my memories back could go faster sometimes.”

Ravage made a noise of agreement in the back of his throat, laying his helm back onto his paws and watching Skids fidget with his fingers. The beastformer could tell there was something on the other’s mind and he wondered if Skids would crack and let it all out if he was left alone to stew for a while longer. He could’ve offered the other some mercy and asked, but Ravage waited, watching the blue mech fidget more. His optics shifted from the grate to his servos to the vent’s ceiling and then back around. 

A shiver worked its way through Ravage’s frame. He tried to shake it off, but it rattled his armor and he curled his tail closer to his frame. Skids froze and looked over at him. The blue mech bit his lower lip, fidgeted, and then looked Ravage in the optics.

“So, I actually brought some pillows and mesh blankets with me. It gets cold up here during the night cycles and I hadn’t planned on going back to my habsuite tonight. It’s more peaceful up here.”

Ravage waited for more, but it appeared Skids was stuck. “And?”

“Well, I mean, if you don’t want to return to Megatron’s habsuite tonight, maybe we can share?”

Ravage blinked and then stared at the other. No one had ever asked him to stay anywhere near them, except for Soundwave. Ravage hadn’t even bothered to ask Megatron if he could stay in his habsuite, it was just a given. They knew each other, Ravage would watch Megatron’s back at night and vice versa. It worked out just fine. But maybe it hadn’t. Maybe Megatron had thought Ravage was just there to report to Soundwave about everything Megatron did instead of what he was really doing for his friend. 

A new pang of hurt constricted his spark and Ravage barely kept from flinching or gasping at the sudden pain. He looked at Skids, stared into the other’s optics, and found only concern and maybe a little bit of hope.

“Yeah, that would be fine. I’d like that.” Ravage whispered.

A smile worked its way across Skids’ face. “Okay, great. I’ll just get everything set up. Oh! And I also snuck some treats out of Rung’s office and snatched some of the goodies Swerve made the other day. We can snack on those and just gossip.”

Ravage grinned. “I never would have pegged you for the filching type.”

“Oh, I definitely filch things when I feel like it.”

“And what exactly do you think we have to gossip about?” Ravage asked, moving out of Skids’ way as the other pulled a pile of pillows and blankets out of his subspace. There were a lot more than Ravage had been expecting.

“We both spend a lot of time up here in the vents. You can’t seriously tell me you haven’t been witness to juicy arguments between Rewind and Chromedome at least once.”

Ravage snorted. “I think you mean once a week. For being the  _ Lost Light’s  _ happiest couple they sure do love to bicker and fight.”

“Only when they’re alone.” Skids grinned back at him. “Well, it’s all done! Might as well get cozy.”

Ravage grinned and darted forward to sprawl across the biggest pillow in the nest Skids had made. It was soft and nearly swallowed him whole, but it was definitely worth it to see the look on Skids’ face.

“Really? That’s my favorite pillow.” The other whined.

“And now it’s mine,” Ravage’s grin showed all of his teeth. His tail twitched back and forth happily and he kneaded at the mesh covering, shifting a bit to get more comfortable on his new perch.

“Fine, whatever,” Skids grumbled. The smile on his face ruined any attempts at pouting he tried.

Skids settled in next to Ravage, throwing a thick, woven tarp over both of them. He pulled out a few containers full of treats and laid them out in the space between himself and Ravage.

“So, heard any juicy rumors lately?” Skids asked with a grin. 

Ravage settled more into the pillow, relaxing fully. He swiped a rust stick with a paw and quickly stuffed it in his mouth. Skids laughed and followed Ravage’s example, grabbing a couple of rust sticks to snack on.

“Well, I did hear some suspicious noises coming from the captain’s quarters the other day. You wouldn’t happen to know what that’s about, do you?”

Skids’ face turned a bright pink as he spluttered. Ravage’s grin turned sharper, more predatory.  _ Oh, this will be so much fun _ , he thought as Skids tried and failed to form excuse after excuse. He was kind of cute when he was flustered. Ravage felt his own blush heat up his cheek ridges at the thought. He had no idea where it had come from, but he couldn’t deny how adorable the other mech was. His tail twitched and thumped against the pillow, which smelled like Skids now that Ravage thought about it. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it would definitely be better mixed with his own.

Skids was still trying vainly to explain his eavesdropping on Rodimus and Thunderclash when Ravage rubbed his cheek and ear against the pillow. He laid there, looking up at Skids and watching the other talk animatedly, arms moving and gesturing wildly. He rubbed his ear against the pillow again for good measure and because he could get away with it. The beastformer snatched another rust stick, Rung really did have the best ones, and focused back on Skids. This really wasn’t all that bad. It certainly beats a quiet night in with Megatron at any rate. An idea slithered into Ravage’s processor at that thought. It was entirely possible to make this a thing between them. A small smile formed on Ravage’s face at the thought of doing this again and again.

“What’s with that look?” Skids asked.

“What look?”

“That slightly dreamy, happy look?” 

“Oh, I was just thinking about how nice this is. No one really wants to spend time with me like this. I was thinking we could maybe do this again sometime in the future.” Ravage said.

Skids stared at him for a klik and then he smiled radiantly at Ravage. “I’d love that.”


End file.
